SPECworkstation 3.0.2 Storage Benchmark
SPECworkstation benchmark is an excellent benchmark to test systems using workstation-type workloads. In this test, we only ran the Storage component, which is fifteen separate tests.
SPECworkstation performance is fine for the ADATA XPG ATOM 50 1TB. Only the Life Sciences score stands out as particularly low, while some of the other tests like Energy place the ATOM 50 in the top 3.
Sustained Write Performance
This is not necessarily a benchmark, so much as trying to catch the post-cache write speed of the drive. While I am filling the drive with data to the 85% mark with 10 simultaneous write threads, I monitor the drive for the write performance to dip to the lowest steady point and grab a screenshot.
Post-cache write speed on the ADATA XPG ATOM 50 is acceptable at 450 MB/s, though nowhere near approaching the best drives out there.
Temperatures
We monitored the idle and maximum temperature during testing with HWMonitor to get some idea of the thermal performance and requirements of the drive. Please keep in mind that our test bench is an open frame chassis in a 22C room, but with no direct airflow. As a result, this is not representative of a cramped low airflow case and is instead intended to model temperatures of a drive ‘on its own’.
The ADATA XPG ATOM 50 comes with a thin metal heat spreader, which I kept attached during all testing. I did not perform testing without the heat spreader, so I cannot say how effective it is. But with it attached the XPG ATOM 50 managed to peak at 70C, which is the exact end of my comfort zone for SSDs. In a cramped or low-airflow chassis, the ATOM 50 may need more help than its tiny heat spreader can provide, but for most users, it should be fine.
Final Words
Today the ADATA XPG ATOM 50 1TB is $109 online. That price is great for a PCIe 4.0 SSD and is more in line with PCIe 3.0 drives than most 4.0 drives. The drive that seemed the most similar to the ATOM 50 in my testing was the Crucial P5 Plus, which is $135, making the ATOM 50 a significantly better value.
The ADATA XPG ATOM 50 1TB delivers exactly what it promises, and I am always happy when drives set appropriate expectations. While the ATOM 50 does not set any PCIe 4.0 speed records, it does manage to clearly distinguish itself from the best PCIe 3.0 SSDs out there and does so at a relatively low price point. All things considered, I quite like the ATOM 50, and if you want PCIe 4.0 performance at PCIe 3.0 prices it should be at the top of your list.
Would be interesting how this SSD with its low post-cache-write speeds would impact the system performance as swap/page file drive. There are still lots of older systems in use that are hardware limited to 16 or even 8 GB RAM.